Grand Designs

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Grand Designs
Season 24 Season 23 Season 22 Season 21 Season 20 Season 19 Season 18 Season 17 Season 16 Season 15 Season 14 Season 13 Season 12 Season 11 Season 10 Season 9 Season 8 Season 7 Season 6 Season 5 Season 4 Season 3 Season 2 Season 1

 Infos

Original title : Grand Designs
Release date: 29 April 1999
Duration: 60 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Country : GB (1999)

 

Grand Designs .

 Synopsis

British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects.

 24

Season 24 (2023)

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24 (8 )
Wye Valley 2023
1 : Wye Valley 2023
In the Wye Valley, Rosa and Craig battle the never-ending elements to convert a family-owned, century-old, decommissioned steam railway reservoir into a unique living space
Tree house
2 : Tree house
Devoted dad Danny builds a sustainable but affordable stilted house up among the trees in his garden. But with no self-build experience and spiralling costs, can he do it on ambition alone?
Tunbridge Wells 2023
3 : Tunbridge Wells 2023
Kate and Rob replace their 1940s past-it prefab with a bespoke, modern, factory-built home using volumetric modular construction. But will it feel like the characterful home they dream of?
Episode 4
4
Graeme and Melanie want to squeeze a bright red-clad modernist house onto a tiny twin garage plot with no surrounding land. It'll be cleverly laid out to maximise space over three floors, including bedrooms for their daughters in a new basement.
South Herefordshire 2023
5 : South Herefordshire 2023
Furniture maker Lucinda wants to construct a beautifully crafted, two-storey, highly insulated timber home in the woodland of South Herefordshire on a very modest budget, and without using heavy machinery.
Cotswolds 2023
6 : Cotswolds 2023
Duncan and Liz build a revolutionary Passivhaus Premium powerhouse of a home in the Cotswolds. But with a spiralling schedule and lonesome living, will it really all be worth it in the end?
Liskeard, Cornwall: Revisited 2023
7 : Liskeard, Cornwall: Revisited 2023
Leigh and Richard planned to transform a derelict 17th-century flour mill, full of rotten timbers and riddled with structural cracks, into a warm, contemporary, four-floor, three-bed home. (Revisited from Series 21: Episode 5 in 2021)
Billingshurst, Sussex Revisit 2023
8 : Billingshurst, Sussex Revisit 2023
In 2019, Olaf and Fritha set out to build on a tricky slice of land in West Sussex, boxed in by an A-road and a train line. Kevin returns to see how their triangular triumph is faring.

Season 23 (2022)

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South Manchester
1 : South Manchester
In south Manchester, can Colin and Adele overcome contractor issues, delays and financial ruin to finish the build of their eye-popping curved glass home?
Tunbridge Wells
2 : Tunbridge Wells
Kate and Rob replace their 1940s past-it prefab with a bespoke, modern, factory-built home using volumetric modular construction. But will it feel like the characterful home they dream of?
Canterbury
3 : Canterbury
Ship’s captain Dorran promised his family he’d build a super-modern underground lair on a hill outside Canterbury. But as the epic build hits choppy waters, will Dorran fulfil their dream?
Chess Valley
4 : Chess Valley
Zimbabwean born Davi and Matt from Australia set out to build a house in the Chess Valley with a radical multicultural design. Can they deliver, or will it end up just a mishmash of ideas?
Derbyshire
5 : Derbyshire
In Derbyshire, Mike and Sarah set out to build a multigenerational longhouse. But with a complicated roof, a shortage of materials and an unexpected bereavement, it proves far from easy...
Dunstable
6 : Dunstable
In Dunstable, John and his wife Helen demolish an old, dilapidated house and in its place build a million-pound, high-tech, accessible glass pavilion, complete with wildlife garden
Sydenham Hill London
7 : Sydenham Hill London
Corinne plans to build a beautifully crafted, wedge-shaped home on a slither of garden down the side of the house she’s lived in for 24 years. But it sits in a strict conservation area…
North Devon Revisit
8 : North Devon Revisit
In 2011, Edward and Hazel set out to build a lighthouse on the north Devon coast. By 2019, they were near bankruptcy with just a rusting shell. Three years on, has anything has changed?
South Somerset Revisit
9 : South Somerset Revisit
In 2015, Vicky and Ed set out to transform a derelict cowshed into a 21st-century smallholding in Somerset. Six years on, how much has this wildly ambitious project changed their lives?
Bolton Revisit
10 : Bolton Revisit
In 2015, Paul and Carol's plans to build a fortress-like home on the edge of the wild West Pennine Moors were thwarted when they ran out of money and time. Have they finally finished it?
Devon Revisit
11 : Devon Revisit
In the longest revisit in Grand Designs history, Kevin McCloud returns to Devon to see if Sue and Martin's renovation of two ancient barns has finally come to fruition, two decades on.

Season 22 (2021)

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22 (7 )
South Devon 2021
1 : South Devon 2021
Joe and Claire hope to create 'one of the greatest homes on the planet', that looks like a huge piece of art, with 34 enormous angled zinc shards. But the expensive build faces mind-boggling problems.
West Sussex 2021
2 : West Sussex 2021
Master carpenter Olaf faces the biggest challenge of his career: creating an oasis for himself and his partner Fritha on a tiny slice of land in Sussex near a mainline railway and A-road
Kinross 2021
3 : Kinross 2021
Iain and Jenny plan to build an enormous black, minimalist, rectangular building in the middle of a country estate in the dramatic Scottish countryside. But what will the neighbours say?
Ely, Cambridgeshire 2021
4 : Ely, Cambridgeshire 2021
Gretta plans to build a Malaysian-inspired pavilion, designed by her nephew, on her sister and brother-in-law's land in Ely. Will this family affair and story of renewal end in harmony?
Chichester, West Sussex 2021
5 : Chichester, West Sussex 2021
Dan and Nina want to build a unique family home, but their plot is dominated by a pond filled with local drainage. Will their West Sussex house be sublime and sleek or a Shrek-like swamp?
South Lakeland, Cumbria 2021
6 : South Lakeland, Cumbria 2021
Rob and Ruth plan to transform a 200-year-old former blacking mill of historic importance into a new-build hybrid. But can they conserve its original atmospheric magic?
East Essex 2021
7 : East Essex 2021
Geoff's selling up in Spain to build a flood-resistant architectural marvel on a flood plain on the Essex coast. Will he sink or swim when Covid hits and Spain's property market collapses?

Season 21 (2021)

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21 (7 )
1 : South West London 2021
Justin plans to restore a neo-Gothic cemetery keeper's lodge and convert its toilet block into a luxury extension complete with a moat and swimming pool. But can he keep his budget under control?
2 : Kent: Converted Barn
Kevin McCloud meets Greg and Georgie who are taking on the highly ambitious task of converting a dilapidated, 35-year-old barn in Kent. The build will be a huge challenge involving the painstaking conservation of the existing rotten structure, building a new two-storey internal steel frame and recycling everything they can to stretch their £250,000 budget.
3 : South Lincolnshire: Contemporary Barn House
Nathan and Amye are building a cathedral-like home modelled on local Dutch barn houses with a sleek twist and a 5000-tile armadillo roof. But the pressure mounts for project manager Nathan.
3 : South Lincolnshire: Contemporary Barn House
Nathan and Amye are building a cathedral-like home modelled on local Dutch barn houses with a sleek twist and a 5000-tile armadillo roof. But the pressure mounts for project manager Nathan.
Bletchley: Self-Heating House
4 : Bletchley: Self-Heating House
Energy conservationist Andrew plans to build a radical, self-heating home by storing the warmth of the summer sun into insulated earth banks. But will this gigantic thermal experiment work?
Episode 5
5
Lewes Revisit 2021
6 : Lewes Revisit 2021
Kevin McCloud revisits Adrian and Megan, whose dream home in East Sussex became a nightmare. With the house now fully complete, what is living in a cutting-edge concrete bunker really like?

Season 20 (2019)

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1 : Galloway
Andy and Jeanette plan a precarious cliff-top build on the west coast of Scotland. There are battles with extreme weather, budget overruns, and a sudden emotional shock.
2 : Lincolnshire
Paul and Amy Wilkinson plan to build a lakeside home in Lincolnshire with five circular timber buildings linked by walkways. But Paul's health suffers as he struggles to finish in a year.
3 : Warwickshire
Design engineer Mark Butler, wife Penny and their three young children live in a seemingly idyllic old farmhouse in Warwickshire. But there’s a big problem with the house. Mark is paralysed from the waist down following a motorcycle accident and his home has no accessibility built in. Getting around the house in his wheelchair, using the kitchen and bathroom and putting the kids to bed upstairs ranges from difficult to impossible – and it’s only going to get worse as he gets older. But indomitable Mark, a former Paralympic swimmer, who’s spent the last 30 years developing sports cars and racing bikes, has a radical solution. Along with Penny, they will build a dual-purpose family and wheelchair friendly home on the site of a redundant barn next door. Their cutting-edge new barn will have accessibility baked into its very fabric – with a drive-in basement, a passenger lift, accessible kitchen and bathroom, step-free flooring and extra wide retractable sliding doors. But building such a unique accessible home over three floors for just six hundred thousand pounds proves a huge challenge. With quotes astronomic, design changes forced upon them and inexperienced Penny made to oversee the project, getting the precision needed to make the house work for both Mark and the family comes under serious threat. Then when personal circumstances suddenly change too, the strain on Mark and Penny becomes almost unbearable.
4 : Hull
Back in 2013 engineer Richard Bennett and his partner Felicia Böhm set out on a giant re-invention scheme – to transform a vast, dark underground water reservoir near the Humber Estuary into a light, airy courtyard family home for them and their four-year-old daughter. And they wanted to do it in 9 months, for just 150 thousand pounds, almost entirely on their own without the help of a designer or an architect. It’s ambition bordering on wild optimism. From the start it proves an epic task. Demolishing the concrete roof while keeping the reservoir’s walls and floor intact takes an almighty feat of engineering. Grinding hundreds of square metres of bare reservoir walls to become the interior of the living spaces is utterly exhausting. Design and layout decisions stretch their abilities and the schedule to the max. But all this is put into perspective when life threatening illness strikes out of the blue…
5 : Suffolk
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of musician Toby Leeming as het sets out to build a house wrapped around an ancient oak tree in rural Suffolk. The design for Toby's five-building home contans six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a music studio and an annexe - a vast project more like a village than a house.
6 : North Devon
Edward and Hazel plan a shining white art deco lighthouse on a rugged beautiful clifftop. But almost immediately their wildly optimistic plan runs into trouble.
7 : Strathaven Revisit 2019
Six years on, Kevin returns to Scotland to see Colin and Marta's incredible metal home, inspired by aircraft hangars, now that the construction is finally finished.

Season 19 (2018)

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19 (7 )
1 : Aylesbury Vale
Kevin meets a couple converting a listed mini-castle in Buckinghamshire into a family home. The Saxon burial ground the folly is built upon throws up some macabre surprises.
2 : Padstow
Harry and Briony are relocating and building an American modernist house inspired by 80s teen comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The project is big and proves challenging.
3 : Richmond
Richmond 2018 In a leafy spot in south west London, Elinor and Born want to build Britain's first 'healthy' house, to alleviate their sons' life-threatening allergies in a race against time.
4 : Leominster
Steph Wilson and husband Alex try to build a contemporary farmhouse on her grandfather's old farmland. But lack of money leads to a long spell in a caravan and a total re-design.
5 : Sheffield
Identical twins Nik and Jon build near identical houses in Sheffield. Raised on steel stilts, these two extraordinary properties pay tribute to Sheffield's industrial past.
6 : Lewes
Deep-sea diver Adrian Corrigall and wife Megan want to build a concrete family home that Adrian hopes will prove the ultimate 21st-century country house.
7 : East Devon Revisited
Kevin returns to Devon to meet Kevin McCabe, who wanted to build one of the biggest houses ever on Grand Designs, out of mud. Seven years after it began, the cob castle is complete. (Revisited from Series 13: Episode 8)

Season 18 (2017)

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18 (9 )
1 : Malvern: Hill House
After a four year stint living in New Zealand, ex-RAF pilot Jon and GP Gill Flewers want to build a Kiwi-style hill house on the slopes of the Malvern hills in Worcestershire. They plan to build an ambitious three-storey home clad in wood and stone, but the pair encounter problems as the site is so steep builders do not want to take on the job.
2 : Harringey, London: Victorian Gatehouse
Kevin McCloud meets neurologists Penny Talelli and Mark Edwards, who plan to combine their love of old and contemporary architecture as they transform a derelict Victorian gatehouse in North London. However, the pair soon find themselves struggling to balance their busy working lives alongside project managing the build.
3 : County Down: Agricultural House
Kevin McCloud meets young architect and shed fanatic Micah Jones, who plans to transform an old agricultural building in County Down, Northern Ireland. Micah plans an upside down, four bedroom shed using new techniques and materials, but the £200,000 budget runs short, and Micah is forced to take on some of the building work himself.
4 : South Hertfordshire: Roman House
Kevin McCloud meets Chris and Kayo, who plan to build a unique, Roman-inspired home on the protected land surrounding one of Britain's most historic abbeys in Hertfordshire. The pair find themselves constrained by stringent planning conditions, and the intricate and complicated build puts both their schedule and budget under a great deal of pressure.
5 : South East London: Victorian Dairy House
Beth and Andrew rescue a crumbling Victorian dairy, hoping to make it into a 'shabby chic' family home fit for modern life. But is the building simply too derelict?
6 : Blackdown Hills, Devon: Snake House
Kevin McCloud visits a house belonging to an engineer that resembles a giant snake. The building was inspired by an ammonite shell and has a scaly, curving structure that spirals over two levels and combines natural materials with the latest modern technology. However, completing the project within the 12-month schedule may not be possible.
7 : Peak District: Post-Industrial House
After 15 years of saving and planning, ecologist Fred and communications manager Saffron Baker start building work on their new family home in a village in the Peak District. However, the couple face difficulties as the start of construction proves more a feat of civil engineering than a house build, and work comes to a halt when their self-build mortgage falls through.
8 : London: Minscule House
Design engineer Joe Stuart and service designer Lina Nilsson take on the London property market, as they build their own home on a miniscule 38 square metre plot. Joe designs a split level, six half-floor house that will cleverly maximise the space, but the project is soon runs months behind schedule, and thousands of pounds over their budget.
9 : Revisited – Herefordshire: The Recycled Timber-Framed House
Following the work of Ed and Rowena Waghorn as they continue to build a handcrafted, five-bedroom house on an eight acre smallholding in Herefordshire, 10 years in the making. Progress on the build was slow as Ed decided to do most of the work himself, and after four years the house was still a shell. Now, years later, is it possible this house may finally become a medieval masterpiece?

Season 17 (2016)

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17 (9 )
1 : Dursley: Gloucestershire Treehouse
Kevin McCloud follows plumber Jon Martin and ceramicist Noreen Jaafar as they transform a neglected half-acre site in Gloucestershire. However, they are unable to cut down the 27 protected trees on the plot, so their solution is to build a big, modern treehouse with stilts screwed into the earth and balconies that will have views for miles.
2 : Horsham: Fun House
Kevin McCloud follows Matt and Sophie White from Sussex as they build a giant family house of fun for themselves and their children. Going against the norm of designing a serious and practical home, the couple's property features a revolving bookcase door, secret dens, hiding places, one-way mirrors, and a fireman's pole. Matt uses a steel frame system to allow them to change the layout of the property, and other changes include amending the window shapes and sizes, and adding a half floor to create a James Bond room.
3 : South Cornwall: Steam Bending House
Kevin McCloud meets Tom and Danielle Raffield, whose lifelong passion has been steam-bending wood. They've used the technique to create extraordinary furniture and lighting, but now plan to use it on a larger scale. In an attempt to escape the confines of their tiny gamekeeper's lodge, they have decided to build a wavy wooden house in South Cornwall, completed with curved cladding, twisted furniture and interior walls covered with weathered timber. With a £100,000 budget, the pair have decided to do a lot of the building themselves, and Kevin is on hand to discover whether they're up to the challenge.
4 : Essex: Black House
Kevin McCloud meets Michelle Parsons, an artist and teacher who decided to seize the day and build her own private hideaway in a woodland environment in Essex after she recovered from a serious illness. Together with her architect husband David, Michelle planned to construct a sleek, black-clad, three bedroom house complete with an art studio. However, torrential rain and a potentially disastrous gas leak stalled progress on the build, and as construction gets under way, Kevin wonders whether the couple's decision to eliminate windows on two sides of the property may leave them living in a gloomy bunker.
5 : Bolton: Ultra-Modern House
Bolton-based bricklayer Paul Rimmer, who has spent his career restoring and renovating Victorian terrace houses, sets his sights on constructing a state-of-the-art home on a budget of £350,000. However, instead of using the construction materials he has spent the past 40 years mastering, he has opted to build his new home from wood. Roping in his wife Carol, daughter Abby and a selection of favoured workmates, Paul and his team begin work on the ultra-modern, five-bedroom build, and Kevin McCloud reveals how extreme weather, exhaustion, and rapidly dwindling funds place the entire project in jeopardy.
6 : Pembrokeshire: Low-Impact House
7 : Devon: Plough-Shaped House
8 : The Wirral: Floating Timber House
9 : Revisited – Somerset: Cow Shed

Season 16 (2015)

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16 (9 )
1 : West Sussex: The Perfectionist's Bungalow
Kevin McCloud meets Clinton Dall from Sussex, a self-made businessman and father of four aiming to build one of the largest homes ever featured on the show. Dall wants the end project to be perfect - from the finish of his mirrored cruciform steel columns, to how the floor tiles line up with the dining room table, and is willing to spend whatever it takes to achieve his vision. However, the construction represents a huge risk, as down one road lies abject failure and financial ruin, while down the other, is the creation of something sublime and almost heroic.
2 : East Sussex: The Boat House
Boat enthusiast James Strangeways invites Kevin McCloud to survey progress on the construction of his new home, which his architect nephew Ben Hebblethwaite has designed to be as 'un-houselike' as possible. James has spent the past 35 years travelling the canals and waterways of Britain, and despite never liking houses, has decided now is the time to put down roots on dry land. Ben hoped a home standing on stilts above a marsh, and incorporating ship-like qualities such as a keel-shaped roof, will be enough to satisfy his boat-mad uncle. However, Ben's contractor goes into liquidation a few months into the project, taking pounds 87,000 of the pounds 300,000 budget, and when James decides to make a few tweaks to the design, alarm-bells begin to ring for the young architect.
3 : Isle of Wight: The Seaside House
After recovering from a life-threatening brain haemorrhage, Bram Vis, his wife Lisa and their two children want to build a house for sharing on a seaside plot on the Isle of Wight. Kevin McCloud follows the family's progress as they build an ambitious home complete with entertaining spaces and a swimming pool. However, the sheer scale of their project soon becomes clear when their original pounds 850k budget spirals out of control.
4 : Worcestershire: The Cave House
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of 37-year-old Angelo Mastropietro, as he transforms a damp, dark and abandoned cave in Worcestershire. Having recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Angelo wants to create a retreat to help him cope with the news and become a 21st century caveman. He has a budget of pounds 100,000 and plans to almost single-handedly carve, cut and drill into the hillside to make the cave comfortable for contemporary living. However, there is no manual for a project of this kind, and the unique challenge soon becomes an obsession.
5 : County Antrim: The Blacksmith's House
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of teacher Michele Long and architect Michael Howe, who want to restore and transform a 100-year-old blacksmiths in County Antrim near the coast of Northern Ireland. With virtually no practical experience, Michael wants to do as much of the project as possible by himself. However, the weather on the coastline is fierce, and the freezing weather coupled with a tight budget of 150k means the build is stretched from one to three years.
6 : Somerset: The Concrete Cow-Shed
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of private chef Ed Versluys and pilates instructor Vicky Anderson, who want to convert a concrete cowshed in the Somerset countryside into a three bedroom home. With the help of one young builder and the knowledge they can learn from the internet, the couple plan to project manage the conversion themselves. However, they have only eight months and a budget of just over pounds 200k to make a warm and comfortable home with straw bale walls and wide expanses of glass.
7 : Lewes: The Rusty Metal House
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of Stephen Yeoman and Anita Findlay, who want to build a cutting-edge, post-industrial house covered in rusty metal. However, their prominent riverside plot in the traditional and architecturally conservative area of South Downs means everyone will be watching. The project proves to be a real rollercoaster when the fitting of the rusty steel cladding goes wrong, cash flow problems threaten to bring work to a halt, and the couple announce that a baby is on the way.
8 : Revisited – Marlow: The Floating House
9 : Revisited – Cornwall: The Cross-Laminated Timber House

Season 15 (2015)

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15 (4 )
1 : Living in the City
Kevin McCloud presents the first of four special programmes inspired by 15 years of Grand Designs. He begins with a look at the challenges of self-building in the city, where space is at a premium and architects have to be at their most ingenious. Kevin uses footage from the best urban builds from the show over the years, meets pioneers at the forefront of the latest architectural thinking and looks at clever innovations that continue to transform people's lives to reveal which designs work best and why.
2 : Living in the Wild
In the second of four special programmes, Kevin McCloud looks at the challenges of self-building in the UK's most remote places, where beautiful landscapes often meet savage weather. Drawing on footage from 15 years of the programme, as well as new visits to extraordinary and incredible homes, Kevin reveals which designs work best, and why. Along the way, he interviews pioneers at the forefront of architecture in the wilderness and sees the astonishing lengths people go to live on the edges of society.
3 : Living in Suburbia
Kevin McCloud reveals how self-builders in the suburbs are transforming this most maligned of residential environments. He draws on some of the best examples from the 15-year history of Grand Designs, talks to experts in the latest architectural thinking and reveals the designs that have reinvented the suburbs as a place where home-owners really can have it all.
4 : Living in the Country
Kevin McCloud looks at the challenges of self-building in the countryside, where design must embrace and enhance tradition, yet often overcome stringent planning constraints. Drawing on footage from the show's 15-year history, as well as new visits to extraordinary homes, he finds out how pioneers at the forefront of architecture are transforming agricultural and historic buildings, and bringing cutting-edge contemporary design to rural parts.

Season 14 (2014)

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14 (10 )
1 : North Wales: The Clifftop House
Rob Hodgson and Kay Ralph plan to build an architectural monument high on a cliff top. They want to build a sleek glass-fronted house inspired by the cliff-top villas of California. Their plot overlooks a beautiful National Trust beach in North Wales, but to have their jaw-dropping panoramic views will mean taking the biggest gamble of their lives. Access will be incredibly difficult and expensive because of a low bridge over the narrow track to the site. Erosion specialists predict their stunning new home could one day fall into the sea. Prohibited by the local council from reinforcing the cliff face, they decide to build anyway, believing at least the house will outlive them.
2 : North Cornwall: The Cross-Laminated Timber House
Rebecca Sturrock has returned to her family home in Cornwall with her partner Gregory Kewish and a highly ambitious plan. Together they will transform a small, damp, single-storey bungalow into a cutting-edge home on a budget of just pounds 80,000. With rain and wind hammering the site, however, it soon becomes dangerously clear they may have bitten off more than they can chew.
3 : Milton Keynes: Round House
Peter Berkin and his wife Chard have decided to build a new home at the bottom of their garden. Problem is, right from the start they can't agree on any part of the design - even the basic shape. Peter wants the new house to feature a workshop where he can build a plane. He wants the house to be round. Chard however wants it to be square and practical. Peter aims to spend pounds 400K, Chard wants to keep the budget around pounds 200K. With Peter building as much of the house as he can himself, helped by his mates, and Chard taking control of the money and schedule, it looks like a recipe for disaster.
4 : County Derry: Shipping Container House
A young farmer and architect in Northern Ireland hopes to make a home out of four large shipping containers welded together to form a giant cross. Patrick Bradley has come up with a pounds 100k house design to be built out of four 45-foot shipping containers, welded together to form a giant cross and cantilevered over the top of a stream at a beautiful secluded spot on the family farm. His mum is hoping his new home will get Patrick a girlfriend. But his tiny budget is soon under threat.
5 : South East London: Urban Shed
Tracy Fox and husband Steve want to build an 'urban shed' out of industrial materials in an old milk yard in south east London. But the choice of unorthodox materials proves challenging and costly. The build will feature two studios, three bedrooms and a double height space with walkway, with materials including corrugated cement fibre board and 20 foot panels of polycarbonate sheeting. Work on the build stalls until they meet Romas and Remi, a young firm of builders, who boldly decide to take on the challenge of building it for just pounds 300k.
6 : Norfolk: Periscope House
Natasha Cargill wants to build a home shaped like two enormous periscopes in rural Norfolk. But a limited budget and tight planning restrictions start to take their toll. To get planning permission for her build, Natasha Cargill has to ensure not only that the materials used are sustainable, but also agree to measure the amount of diesel used to deliver them. The planning controls are so rigid in fact that even details like the type of portaloos the builders use and the size of her bath have to be monitored. Natasha has just pounds 330k to spend on construction and just six months to complete.
7 : River Thames: Floating House
Andy and Nicki Bruce try to build an experimental flood-proof floating house on an island in the River Thames. But building such a complex design on a site with limited access is not easy. Andy and Nicki Bruce's amphibious house, the first of its kind in the UK. Their architect has come up with an ambitious, experimental design that has never been tried on a river bank in Britain and no one knows whether it will work. The Bruces decide to build on a site on a small island in the river. But it's not long before the project becomes bogged down in the logistical challenges of building such a complex design on a small island that is only accessible by a narrow footbridge.
8 : Revisited – Creuse, France: 19th Century Manor House
Kevin McCloud returns to a remote part of France and a restoration project of a dilapidated manor house started back in 2003 by Denise Daniel and Doug Ibbs. When Denise Daniel and Doug Ibbs gave up everything in the UK to start a new life in a remote part of central France, they couldn't have known what was ahead of them. Most people would have regretted falling in love with a massive, dilapidated manor house with just four crumbling walls and half a roof, but not Doug and Deni. This impressive, extraordinary and utterly determined couple rolled up their sleeves and slogged away day and night, doing everything themselves, year after year, until slowly but surely they created a magnificent edifice out of the ruins they bought off the internet.
9 : Revisited – Monmouthshire: Japanese House
Kevin McCloud returns to a unique Japanese-Welsh fusion home in the Wye Valley to see how the improvised building weathered one of the wettest winters on record. Tamayo Hussey has missed Japan ever since she moved to the UK 15 years ago with her husband Nigel. To stave off the homesickness they decided to transform their home into a one-of-a-kind Japanese house - complete with Japanese roof bath, tatami room and paper sliding walls. Kevin finds out if it has brought the calm and tranquillity Tamayo remembers from her childhood in Japan.
10 : Revisited – Tiverton: Crooked Chocolate Box Cottage
Kevin McCloud returns to Devon for an update on one of the most inspirational builds he has ever witnessed. Marine Captain Jon White and wife Becky were living happily in a small cottage in Devon when in June 2010, while serving in Afghanistan, Jon stepped on an improvised explosive device. Jon lost both legs and his right arm. Every part of his and Becky's lives had to change - starting with where they could live. Their architect came up with a cutting edge, semi open plan building with a dramatic wing-like-roof; but crucially it was to be without noticeable adaptations for Jon's disabilities. It was an ambitious design, and despite the help of a number of military charities and a capable team of builders, Jon was already under severe pressure to finish the house, when news came that Becky was pregnant. Has the new home proved as enabling for Jon, Becky and their expanding family as they'd hoped?

Season 13 (2013)

11  |  : 09/04/2013 British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. 13
13 (11 )
1 : The 1920s Cinema
Kevin McCloud follows a project to renovate and extend a classic 1920s cinema in Thorne, South Yorkshire. With little knowledge of restoration, Gwyn and Kate boldly set about turning the dilapidated building into a family home using masses of concrete after taking advice from an architect friend. The couple are hoping to create a hydraulic glass wall that opens up one side of the house to form a UV-filtered canopy, and there are also plans for a white roof extension that resembles a diving board.
2 : North London: The miniature Hollywood mansion
Jonathan Broom and his wife Deborah have put everything on hold while he pursues his dream of building a mini Hollywood Hills-style mansion right in the gritty heart of north London. For ten years Jonathan Broom has been obsessed with building his own home.They finally stumble across a scrap of land right in the gritty heart of North London, but it's fraught with problems, and the only way they can build their wildly ambitious £1million pound family home, complete with nanny flat and swimming pool, is by sinking half of it six metres below ground. It's a project that pushes the couple and their builder to the very limit. Desperate to make every penny of the budget stretch, Jonathan strikes every deal he can, and even sells his business to raise funds. Originally scheduled to take a year, this giant hole in the ground consumes their money and lives for much longer.
3 : York: The Giant Farm Shed
Kevin meets Martin and Kae Walker, who want to build the ultimate family home inspired by a giant farm shed.
4 : Devon
When he lost three limbs in Afghanistan, Jon's life changed forever. Now he wants to build a house that allows him to live independently. The design is cutting edge, but the budget spirals. Marine captain Jon's life changed forever when he stepped on a land mine. Before his injuries, home for Jon had meant a crooked chocolate box Devon cottage. After countless viewings of uninspiring specialist dwellings and awkward conversions, they realised that the only way to get a house that would enable Jon to live independently was to build it themselves. The design boasts sleek glass walls, open plan spaces and a dramatic wing-like roof. Crucially the design concept is for there to be no noticeable adaptations due to Jon's disabilities. Despite his lack of experience, Jon decides to project manage and calls on the support of a number of military charities for this hugely ambitious project. The pressure to finish on time increases when Becky discovers she is pregnant.
5 : South Lanarkshire
Kevin meets flying instructor Colin Mackinnon and trapeze artist Marta Briongos and the incredible metal home they're building next to their very own airfield in Strathaven, Scotland. There aren't many people in Britain who can say they own their own airfield. But Colin and Marta Briongos are part of the very select few. The airfield is so important to them, they've decided to live there too. Their ambitious plan is to build an incredible metal sculptural home next to the runway, designed by one of Scotland's most eminent architects and inspired by aircraft hangars. But the difficulties of building their beautiful design soon become apparent. And before the project is barely off the ground they're contending with violent rain, snow, 100-mile-an-hour winds and the worst storms for 100 years. With work slowed down to a snail's pace, what was supposed to be a year-long project heads into its third year.
Monmouthshire: Japanese House
6 : Monmouthshire: Japanese House
Tamayo Hussey's missed Japan ever since she moved to the UK with her husband Nigel. To stave off the homesickness they've decided to transform a forester's lodge into a Japanese house complete with roof bath, tatami room and sliding paper walls. Keen to keep costs under control, Nigel and Tamayo decide to engage only the design skills of an architect and with no previous building experience they bravely go it alone, working without any detailed drawings and fire-fighting problems every step of the way. The wood they're using for the timber frame - Japanese larch - hasn't been used for building houses before in the UK, so no one can be sure it will be strong enough, the new interior walls don't meet properly and the replacement window design can't cope with the rain. But Nigel and Tamayo are determined to overcome any obstacle to get the Japanese house they're so desperate for.
South London: Modernist Masterpiece
7 : South London: Modernist Masterpiece
A young couple want take on an average 1950s house and turn it into an architectural masterpiece. After a year of searching London for somewhere exciting to live with their young girls Lola and Sylva, Ben and Rachel Hammond stumbled upon a house on a totally unique plot, buried within the leafy depths of a beautiful south London park. Only problem is the house itself - an ugly, inefficient and uninspiring red brick property. Their solution is uncompromising. With the help of their architect friend Zac, they decide not to knock it down, but to radically redesign, remodel and transform this unsightly lump it into a sleek, crisp, modernist masterpiece. This is no easy task however. Their cutting edge new materials struggle to get past the local planning department and building control. Delivery of key elements like the giant glass window panes is massively delayed. The contractors struggle to deliver on an incredibly tight fixed price contract, and Ben and Rachel have to work flat out in their day jobs to pay for everything.
East Devon: Cob Castle
8 : East Devon: Cob Castle
Kevin meets a master craftsman whose dream is to build a castle made entirely of mud. Kevin McCabe is the leading living exponent of the ancient art of cob building - wrestling houses out of mud using his bare hands. But Kevin doesn't just want to build another cob house, he wants to build a cob castle. Not only that, Kevin also wants their gigantic new cob house to meet the highest environmental performance targets ever set. It is truly an almighty challenge. The house will be formed of two vast curved cob roundhouses - the largest of which is inspired by the natural geometry of a snail shell - connected by glazing and topped with undulating wild-flower meadow roofs to mirror the surrounding Devon countryside. But building it involves mixing and laying a mind boggling 2000 tonnes of cob, all during warm sunny weather. Kevin is determined to have the main cob walls up in a few months. But soon the sheer scale of the task becomes clear.
Newbury: Christmas Farm
9 : Newbury: Christmas Farm
Confirmed city dwellers Michael and Phil have moved to the country to run a farm, start a micro brewery and create in a vast, dramatic 21st-century farmhouse to live in. Michael Butcher and Phil Palmer were confirmed Londoners, loft-livers in the heart of Soho. Until they fell in love with Christmas Farm, near Newbury, and took the life changing decision to quit their urban media jobs and move to the country. They faced two big problems however: first there was an agricultural tie on the land, so Phil and Michael would have to become farmers; the second problem was the uninspiring faux-alpine timber chalet serving as a farmhouse - it had to go. But Phil and Michael have decided they don't want to build a regular brick farmhouse as a replacement. Determined to bring a bit of urban glamour to their new home, they want a 21st-century farmhouse unlike anything the area has seen before. Phil and Michael's version cleverly combines a vast, white, dramatic open-plan party pad upstairs, with muddy functional farming spaces below. As the builders go to work on the extraordinary hand-crafted flint exterior, complete with the largest sliding trapezoid window in Britain, Phil and Michael must juggle construction with farming the land. And in order to make it all work financially they decide to set up a new micro-brewery in the barn.
Revisited: Malaga, Spain: Modernist Villa
10 : Revisited: Malaga, Spain: Modernist Villa
Kevin catches up with the story of a daring modernist home in the Andalucian hills in southern Spain.. Ten years ago Gil and Hillary Briffa decided to retire to southern Spain. Rejecting the coastal sprawl around Malaga they found a virgin plot of land up in the Andalucian hills for just £35,000. But instead of building a home like the traditional old fincas nearby, their architect son's design was a confrontational, modernist glass box, surrounded by boldly coloured connected rooms, hidden behind a giant citadel wall. Construction proved stressful. The couple put all their trust in a local Spanish builder who had never built a house like this before. The local residents didn't like it and the mayor tried to get it re-painted white. But if they could just finish the build, it promised to be the coolest retirement home Kevin McCloud has ever seen. Sadly, Gil died a few years ago, but now Kevin returns to meet with Hillary again and to see whether or not their building has settled into its landscape, whether it's still multi-coloured, and to find out just how life is for her as a British widow living up in the Andalucian hills.
Revisited: Woodbridge: The Modest Home
11 : Revisited: Woodbridge: The Modest Home
Six years ago Lucie Fairweather and Nat McBride began to build an affordable eco home in Woodbridge for themselves and their two young children. However, their journey was to be about more than bricks and mortar. Just before they got started, Nat discovered he had cancer, and after just a few months he passed away. Lucie decided to carry on with the project Nat had devised. Kevin McCloud returns to find out just how life has moved on for Lucie and to discover whether her wonderful and striking house has become part of the landscape.

Season 12 (2012)

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1 : Cloontykilla Castle, Ireland
The new series kicks off with a Grand Design on an epic scale, with the story of one man's heroic attempt to fulfil his childhood dream and bring back from the ruins an incredible castle set in one of the most beautiful landscapes of southern Ireland. Actor Sean Simons fell in love with the ruins of Cloontykilla Castle when he played there as a boy. Years later he bought it, with the idea of turning it into a spectacular, theatrical mock 16th century home, complete with grand baronial hall, luxury bedrooms, sweeping staircases, water spouting gargoyles, Jacuzzis in the battlements and a huge recording studio in the basement. But would it prove to be a magnificent personal masterpiece, or a garish sub-Disneyesque disaster? After borrowing an eye-watering 1.2 million Euros, Sean launches into his project just as Ireland plunges into recession. He has a head full of fairy tales, but no help from an architect, or indeed any formal plans whatsoever. Making things up as you go along is fine if you're building a toy castle, but not when you've got a large team of builders on site, a schedule to hit and the bank looking over your shoulder. Over two years, rooms are built, then knocked down again. Contractors walk out in frustration. Planning permissions are ignored. But somehow Sean's vision starts to come alive... just as Ireland collapses into financial meltdown.
2 : The Computer Cut House, Herefordshire
Kevin meets a pair of civil-partnered university professors, Celia Brackenridge and Diana Woodward.  They have enlisted the services of industrial designers who have developed a new computer-assisted method for cutting precision-engineered building blocks, however although the technique may be clever, its creators have never created a building before
3 : The Glass Cubes House
In Brixton in south London design-mad couple Mary Martin and Carl Turner want to build a home that resembles a giant stack of glass cubes that's a Zen retreat from the noise and chaos of the capital. Mary and Carl want to build something never seen before amongst Brixton's traditional Victorian terraces. Minimalism-obsessed Mary and her architect partner Carl have spent years renovating their homes to be as simple to live in as possible. But this project is bigger and more ambitious than anything they've taken on before. In order to save money, Carl decides he has to take on as many of the specialist build jobs as he can. The results are hair raising as the cranes and steel frames hit the narrow plot. But Carl's biggest test lies ahead, when it comes to finishing the minimalist interior. The tiniest error in the detailing could ruin all the blood, sweat and tears he's put into building this urban sanctuary.
4 : The Thames Boathouse
Kevin McCloud follows Lysette and Nigel Offley, who are knocking down an old Thames boathouse and constructing a cutting-edge home in its place. Taking inspiration from the river itself, they have designed a building of waves and curves with a huge glass porthole for a roof light. But problems begin almost from the start, as they can't find a contractor willing to build over the water, their architect leaves unexpectedly and the costs turn out much higher than expected. To make matters worse, the neighbours aren't happy about such a radical sight in their traditional community. As they begin to compromise, Kevin wonders if the couple's dreams will ever be realised.
5 : The Derelict Water Tower
Kevin McCloud marks the 100th episode with one of the programme's most ambitious projects to date. Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce want to convert and extend a landmark 150-year-old water tower in central London into a luxury home. Grade II-listed, derelict and with 6ft-thick walls, it's a huge challenge for the pair, who also plan to build two structures at the base - a lift shaft connected by a series of glass tunnels, and a modern living space. The result will be a four-bedroom property over nine floors, complete with a room at the top offering spectacular 360 degree views across the capital.
6 : The Edwardian Artist's Studio
Kevin McCloud meets Audrey and Jeff, who dream of living in one of west London's most exclusive areas. However, the way they can afford it is to go underground. Their plan is to transform a listed Edwardian artist's studio - along with 5,000 sq ft of derelict basement - into a bespoke subterranean home, complete with supersize kitchen, mezzanine sitting room, four en-suite bedrooms, a gym, cinema, steam room and wine cellar. As if the task weren't tricky enough, they are doing it without proper architect's drawings and Audrey is project managing - and the difficulties begin almost from the start.
7 : Isle of Skye: The Larch-Clad House
Kevin McCloud meets artists Indi and Rebecca, who are planning to build a modern, larch-clad home on the Isle of Skye, with a second hand-crafted building alongside to use as their studio, all on a tight budget of £150,000. They have been saving for years, but making it happen will mean taking on the savage weather, not to mention the sceptical locals - and as if that weren't enough, most of the work is being done by one man, local builder Donald.
8 : London: The Joinery Workshop
Henning Stummel and his partner Alice Dawson attempt to convert an awkward,covered space, trapped between buildings in the crowded heart of north London into a contemporary family home and office for Henning's practice.
9 : The Tree House: Revisited
Architectural designer Lincoln Miles and his wife found an uninspiring 70s bungalow on the Isle of Wight on a prime piece of land surrounded by unspoilt ancient woodland. Did their unconvential techniques and alternative materials pay off?
10 : The Disco Home: Revisited
In 2010 Claire Farrow and Ian Hogarth embarked on a wild journey to build the ultimate fun family home, right in the heart of London, including a dance floor, DJ booth and sauna.
11 : The Large Timber-Framed Barn: Revisited
Freddie Robins and Ben Coode-Adams left their cramped two bedroom London flat and took on the conversion of a huge Grade II listed timber framed barn in the Essex countryside. Seven times the size of an average three bedroom house, turning this 500-year-old building into a home was a big project. A year after they finished the house, Kevin returns to discover how Ben and Freddy are adjusting to rural life.
12 : The Co-Op: 2nd Revisiting
On the first series of `Grand Designs', a younger Kevin McCloud witnessed as a co-operative of ten families built their own homes on the edge of Brighton. Unpaid, they slogged away for over two years on this pioneering venture, based on designs from architect Walter Segal. A decade later, Kevin returns to see if the houses, and the families that built them, have stood the test of time, and finds himself genuinely inspired.

Season 11 (2011)

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1 : Morpeth: The Derelict Mill Cottage
Kevin McCloud looks at the transformation of a derelict mill cottage in Northumberland into a contemporary family home, the longest-running project ever featured on the programme. Stefan Lepkowski and Annia Shabowska began work in 2006, and their ambitious plans involved restoring the Georgian building, reconstructing a watermill and adding a steel-and-glass atrium, but their budget of £250,000 was completely inadequate.
2 : London: The Contemporary Mansion
Paul and Penny are tearing down their million pound home in south London to build a contemporary mansion. But the challenge of building a complex home soon starts to bite.
3 : Tenby: The Lifeboat Station
Kevin follows the progress being made as Tim and Philomena O'Donovan, convert a lifeboat station in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, into a contemporary home.
4 : Essex: The Large Timber-framed Barn
Kevin McCloud follows the conversion of a large, Grade II-listed timber-framed barn in Essex into a family home and work-space by artists Freddie Robbins and Ben Coode-Adams. Their plans involve few interior walls to display their collection of toys, but at seven times the size of an average three-bedroom house, the transformation of the 500-year-old building proves extremely challenging.
5 : Herefordshire: The Recycled Timber-framed House
Kevin McCloud meets estate manager Ed Waghorn and his wife Rowena, a couple living an almost self-sufficient life with their four children on a smallholding in Herefordshire. They have been constructing a timber-framed house using recycled materials, wood from nearby forests and stone from around the site, but as construction becomes a way of life for Ed they seem to have lost sight of their goal.
6 : Cornwall: The Dilapidated Engine House
Ever since he was a child, stonemason Adam Purchase has loved the old silver mine engine houses that characterise Cornwall's landscape. When he and his partner Nicola Brennan chanced upon a dilapidated Grade II listed engine house with planning permission to turn into a home, it was a dream come true. But converting this important historic ruin into a place to live was never going to be easy. The building itself was little more than a shell, with crumbling plant-infested walls and no roof, windows or floors: a challenge for even the most experienced builders like Adam. Meanwhile the banks refuse to lend them more than £100k, which Adam and Nicola both know is barely enough to get them through. Still, driven by their passion for old buildings, Nicola agrees to support Adam while he takes a year off work to complete the project.
7 : London: The Disco Home
Claire and Ian try to build a home big enough for a disco on a small plot at the end of a London mews. But as angry locals begin to object to their plans, things start to go awry.
8 : Revisited - London: The Disco Home
Kevin catches up with Claire Farrow and Ian Hogarth who began a wild journey in 2010 to create d the ultimate fun family home, right in the heart of London, including a dance floor, dj booth and sauna.
9 : Revisited - Essex: The Large Timber-framed Barn
Kevin catches up with Freddie Robins and Ben Coode-Adams who left their two bedroom London flat and took on the conversion of a huge Grade II listed timber framed barn in the Essex countryside.
10 : The Water Tower Conversion: Revisited
Kevin revisits Denise and Bruno Del Tufo who six years ago set about transforming a concrete water tower in their back garden into an avant-garde contemporary home.
11 : The Adaptahaus: Revisited
Kevin McCloud revisits Alan and Judith Dawson in west Cumbria, where they began constructing a prefabricated home in 2009. They employed a method of building that should have allowed them to assemble the home in just 15 days on a budget of £300,000, and the presenter returns to find out whether they were successful.
12 : The Headcorn Minimalist House: Revisited
Kevin McCloud revisits a couple who took on the task of constructing a sustainable house in the Kent countryside. Mimi da Costa managed the project despite a lack of experience, while her husband worked, and intended to have it completed in 16 weeks. But as the build threatened to drag on for months it became unclear whether their home would succeed in blending in and providing them with a greener lifestyle.

Season 10 (2010)

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1 : Isle of Wight: The Tree House
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of architectural designer Lincoln Miles and his wife, artist Lisa Traxler, who want to create their own home on the Isle of Wight. They have bought a property on a prime piece of land and set out to transform it into a creative structure that complements the unspoilt woodland setting.
2 : Cotswold: The Stealth House
Helen and Chris Seymour Smith are architects who are planning to build a subterranean, eco-friendly house underneath a ruined 300-year-old barn in the Cotswolds. Kevin McCloud follows their progress as they set out to create a building that is airtight and needs no heating, but whose spartan interior raises questions of habitability
3 : Woodbridge: The Modest Home
Kevin McCloud follows the efforts of Lucie Fairweather to build an eco-friendly house in Woodbridge, Suffolk. After the death of her partner 18 months earlier, and not having a large budget, Lucie is determined to create a beautiful and affordable family home with the help of Jerry Tate, an architect who was involved in the design of the Eden Project
4 : Stowmarket: The Tudor Guildhall
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of Simon Bennett and his wife Jill as they try to restore two timber-framed barns in Suffolk. The couple found out that one of the buildings is among the smallest surviving medieval guildhalls in the country, and while Kevin advises the pair to conserve it in its present state, Simon is determined to restore it to its former glory.
5 : Ipswich: The Radian House
Jonathan and Lindsay want to build a house that's exciting to look at, cheap to run, and ecologically sound. But the build is a battle, with technologies that don't work and a tight budget.
6 : Lizard Peninsular: The Scandinavian House
Kevin meets interior designer Kathryn Tyler, who has decided the best way onto the property ladder is to design and build her own house in her parents' back garden in Falmouth.
7 : West Cumbria: The Adaptahaus
Alan Dawson has invented his own way of making a house, with every piece put together on site in days. But it must all fit perfectly. Only then will Alan know if his unique house works.
8 : Lake District: The Dome House
When Robert and Milla Gaukroger find a plot overlooking Lake Windermere in the Lake District National Park, they reckon they've hit gold.
9 : Revisited - Lake District: The Dome House
Kevin revisits Robert and Milla a year after their ambitious Lake District eco home seemed on the verge of running out of money. Have the couple completed their visionary timber home?
10 : Revisited - West Cumbria: The Adaptahaus
Kevin McCloud revisits Alan and Judith Dawson in west Cumbria, where they began constructing a prefabricated home in 2009. They employed a method of building that should have allowed them to assemble the home in just 15 days on a budget of £300,000, and the presenter returns to find out whether they were successful.
11 : Revisited - Isle of Wight: The Tree House
Kevin catches up with Lincoln Miles and his wife, artist Lisa Traxler, who had discovered an uninspiring 70s bungalow on the Isle of Wight on a prime piece of land surrounded by unspoilt ancient woodland and were going to convert it into their dream home.
12 : Revisited: Woodbridge: The Modest Home
Six years ago Lucie Fairweather and Nat McBride began to build an affordable eco home in Woodbridge for themselves and their two young children. However, their journey was to be about more than bricks and mortar. Just before they got started, Nat discovered he had cancer, and after just a few months he passed away. Lucie decided to carry on with the project Nat had devised. Kevin McCloud returns to find out just how life has moved on for Lucie and to discover whether her wonderful and striking house has become part of the landscape.
13 : The Water Tower: 2nd Revisiting
As one of `Grand Design's' first projects, Andrew Tate and Deborah Mills found a site with a monstrous, dilapidated, 100 foot tall water tower on it. Kevin went back to see Andrew and Deborah three years after they had moved into their contemporary extension, but they had still made no progress on the water tower, and were living with minimal bedroom space. Kevin returns again to see how they've fared.
14 : The Lime Kiln House: Revisited
When Pru and Richard Irvine came across a plot of land in the middle of the breathtakingly beautiful Midlothian countryside, they seized the opportunity to build on it a bespoke family home. However, the plot, an old industrial site complete with lime kilns, came with a condition. They could only build on it if they become custodians of the kilns, and more importantly, that the house they built blended in to its setting.

Season 9 (2009)

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1 : The Apprentice Store, Somerset
Ian and Sophie Cooper met at university and have since spent their time together enjoying life in London. Ian works as a marketing consultant in telecoms and Sophie is a sales manager for a fashion firm. Both are passionate about design. They’ve done the usual thing of renovating flats and moving on... but three years ago they realised they wanted a different kind of life in a different kind of building.
2 : The Chilterns Water Mill, Oxfordshire
Inspired by an illustration on a yoghurt pot, Chris Ostwald decides to build a New England-style water mill in the Chilterns, on a hill and nowhere near any water.
3 : The Newport Folly, Newport
Sarah and Dean Berry grew up on a council estate in Newport. Having moved away to London and made good, they have now returned home 17 years later and bought an 18th century folly - a castle perched on a hilltop. They not only plan to restore the folly to its former glory, but wrap a large modern extension around the original structure, with lots of glass to capitalise on the amazing views.
4 : The Eco Arch, Kent
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of architect Richard Hawkes and wife Sophie, who are moving from London to the Kent countryside to build a hi-tech eco-friendly house with room to grow their own food. Richard also wants their new home to blend effortlessly into the surrounding countryside, concealed beneath a huge arch of clay tiles covered with earth and planted with grass
5 : The Brittany Groundhouse, Brittany
Daren Howarth and Adi Nortje are keen to build an earth-sheltered home from recycled materials in Brittany. The house is a very low tech one, mainly constructed from old car tyres.
6 : The Marlborough Farm house, Wiltshire
Dairy farmer Andrew Ainslie and his artist wife Meryl, who run a gallery on their farm, build a modern barn-style farmhouse on their 700 acre farm in the rolling chalk hills of Wiltshire.
7 : The Prefabricated house, Kent
Mimi De Costa and her husband Andre, a doctor, had spent years looking for a plot of land when they came across a bungalow in Kent. The original bungalow They bought it for the site - 12 acres of organic pasture and woodland - and started to plan a new home for their sons, Sean and Tye, that would suit a lower impact way of living. But what they're building isn’t going to be a reproduction of the bungalow. It's a squarish, modular building, with glass walls from floor to ceiling. The outside of the building is clad in cedar that will go grey to match the surrounding oak trees. The idea is that by prefabricating most of the house it should be quicker and easier to put together on site. But although it will be precision made, it isn’t a kit house.
8 : Brighton: Ultra Contemporary Mansion
Barry Surtees wants to build a modern mansion for his family in Brighton, but he is soon battling with escalating material costs, complaining neighbours and finally a heart attack.
9 : Revisited: The Hexagonal Straw Baled House, Cambridgeshire
Kevin returns to see how Daren Howarth and Adi Nortje's project has fared four years after they decided to build an earth-sheltered home in Brittany.
10 : Revisited - Weald of Kent: Arched Eco House
Kevin returns to the Weald of Kent and one of the most innovative houses ever featured on Grand Designs: a highly experimental arch-shaped home built from clay tiles.
11 : Revisted: The Thatched Cottage, Hampshire
Kevin McCloud revisits a couple who took on the task of constructing a sustainable house in the Kent countryside. Mimi da Costa managed the project despite a lack of experience, while her husband worked, and intended to have it completed in 16 weeks. But as the build threatened to drag on for months it became unclear whether their home would succeed in blending in and providing them with a greener lifestyle.
12 : Revisted: The Loch House, Killearn
13 : Revisited: The Woodman's Cottage, Sussex

Season 8 (2008)

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1 : Cheltenham
A couple who live in a Regency house in Cheltenham that is expensive to run decide to sell up and build a modern low maintenance house in their back garden. However, height restrictions mean they have to build 60 per cent of their new home underground and neighbours make 90 complaints about their planning application. Undeterred, the pair continue as planned, but the project encounters further problems including the departure of the builders.
2 : Oxford
Henry Chopping finds his plans to build a new home in Oxford hampered by a listed wall and planning restrictions. With a budget of over three quarters of a million Henry is determined to make his dream home a reality.
3 : Bristol: The Modernist Sugar Cube
An architect plans to build a new house for his family using only white materials. He ends up using stuff more commonly used in commercial buildings.
4 : Gothic House
Jo and Shaun Bennett want to build an Addams Family style Gothic house with a £400,000 budget. With the challenge growing bigger than they ever imagined they face financial problems and struggle to stay within their budget.
5 : Midlothian
Pru and Richard make plans to build a bespoke family home on an industrial site in the middle of the Midlothian countryside. However, the plot of land, an old industrial site complete with lime kilns, comes with a condition. They can build on it only if they become custodians of the kilns, and more importantly, that the house they build blends in with the landscape. It's a huge challenge and Pru and Richard want to build an uncompromisingly modern and, moreover, large box of a house. It could become a blot on the landscape instead of an enhancement. Pru and Richard sensibly plan to start building in the summer, but because it is an industrial site, are forced to do numerous soil tests. The build is delayed until the harsh Scottish winter. With Richard grafting hard to pay for the build, it's down to Pru, a food writer, to project manage. Naively she doesn't consider this a full time job, but when her trusty builder goes away and she is left to manage alone, she starts to realise just what she's let herself in for. This giant of a house is a giant of a project. Until it's complete, nobody is quite sure whether it will fulfill its brief.
6 : Bath
Kevin attempts to help helps Tiffany and Jonny with their dream of creating an ultra-modern, eco-friendly home in Bath in the west country. Rather than go down the traditional building route, Tiffany and Jonny opted for a German pre-fabricated kit house with great green credentials. But before they could even think about building their house they had to prepare their site: a fiercely steep hillside. Tiffany and Jonny embarked on the biggest ground works project Grand Designs has ever seen, costing around £300,000. And, just when they were about to complete these mammoth works, the weather turned bad and disaster struck. Their neighbour's wall collapsed in a storm. The resulting damage could have cost them nearly £100,000. Determined to carry on, even through 80 tonnes of extra mud, Tiffany and Jonny persevered, and a year into their project, were finally able to go to Germany to choose their house. Every fixture and fitting had to be decided and, once made, no changes were allowed. Now, with the promise of the house taking only five days to go up on site, and with no possibility of landslides, hopefully their build will now run smoothly.
7 : Puglia Revisited
In Maidstone, Jean and Bill Letley, a septuagenarian couple plan a highly contemporary bungalow complete with underfloor heating and prototype steel foundations. The project would test even the most accomplished workmen, but is left to their daughter and son-in-law, who have little building experience and have to make personal sacrifices.
8 : Peterborough Revisited
Kevin returns to see how Pru and Richard Irvine fared one-and-a-half years after they began building their bespoke home in the Midlothian countryside.
9 : Pre Fab House Revisited
10 : Victorian Barn Revisited
Kevin McCloud revisits Philip Trail and his wife Angela who moved to stress-free Surrey and renovated a 150-year-old threshing barn after Philip was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
11 : Cumbria Underground House Revisited
Five years on, Kevin McCloud goes back to the wilds of Cumbria to see how the Reddy family have adapted to their ecologically sound earth-sheltered home.
12 : Maidstone: The Hi Tech Bungalow
In Maidstone, Jean and Bill Letley, a septuagenarian couple plan a highly contemporary bungalow complete with underfloor heating and prototype steel foundations. The project would test even the most accomplished workmen, but is left to their daughter and son-in-law, who have little building experience and have to make personal sacrifices.

Season 7 (2007)

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1 : Yorkshire: The 14th Century Castle
Every Englishman’s home is his castle but for Francis Shaw this is quite literally true. He and his wife, Karen, and their two young daughters, bought the ruins of a 14th Century castle in Yorkshire and took on the remarkable challenge of turning a pile of stones into a beautiful home. Surrounded by rolling green fields, the location is idyllic; however, the castle itself was little more than four crumbling walls.
2 : Thatched Cottage, Hampshire
Eight years ago Alex and Cheryl Reay left London for a new life in the New Forest. They bought a run down medieval thatched cottage and lovingly brought it back to life. Then just before Christmas, with Cheryl pregnant, disaster struck. A fault in the chimney caused a massive fire which destroyed the entire building. Overnight Alex and Cheryl had lost almost £400,000. Whilst most people would have walked away from this, Alex and Cheryl couldn’t let go of their dream. Nine months after the fire, they decided to start all over again and rebuild the cottage, bigger and better than before.
3 : Eco-barge, Medway
Chris Miller and his wife Sze Liu Lai lived in a tiny flat in East London with their two children Alexion and Tayszea. It was very tight for space and as the kids grew they really felt in need of more room. Chris and Sze are both social workers on low incomes and they have very little in the way of savings.
4 : The Bournemouth Penthouse
James and Katrin Gray live in Bournemouth on the south coast. James runs his own book distribution business and Katrin works for an investment bank. They used to live in an apartment on the second floor of a former Victorian hotel. But three years ago, James bought the top floor flat. It was originally built as a solarium for the hotel in the 1920’s where holiday-makers could soak up the sun. Now James and Katrin plan to convert it into a modern, luxury penthouse
5 : Carmarthen Revisit
Dean Marks has dreamt of living in a church for as long as he can remember. After searching for the right building for years, he came across St Martin’s near Birmingham, a huge 18th century grade II listed church which looks more like a mausoleum. The church wanted £25,000 for it but Dean knocked them down to £12,500. Now, after fighting for planning permission for four years, Dean and his wife, Hilary, are about to transform this derelict monstrosity into a family home.
5 : The Eco-House: Revisited
Kevin revisits Andrew and Lowri Davies who embarked on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them? As the budget spirals out of control, they find it increasingly difficult to balance the budget with their desire for a sustainable home.
6 : Birmingham Church
When Pilots Andrew Berry and his wife Helen bought their cottage near Guildford in Surrey 7 years ago they always planned to add a small extension. But over the last few years the modest extension has evolved so much that retaining any of the original cottage simply wasn’t practical. Now it’s being completely demolished to make way for a new five bedroom Art Deco style house.
7 : Cambridge: The Cambridgeshire Eco Home
Kelly and Masoko Neville set about building not just a spectacular oak frame and straw bale house, but a whole new way of life in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Kelly is a carpenter by trade and has always dreamed of building an eco friendly home with his own hands. This highly sustainable house, sitting in harmony with nature and its surroundings, will become the base for Kelly and Masoko’s new self-sufficient life where they will produce their own food and energy from the land.
8 : Peckham Glass House Revisit
In this episode Kevin meets master carpenter Bill Bradley and his wife Sarah, whose plan is to build two identical timber houses in south London, selling one to finance the building of the other.
9 : Argyll Revisit
Not everyone gets to live out their childhood dreams, but in 2004 Francis Shaw did exactly that when he bought a crumbling castle on English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk register, to restore. Little did he know what he was letting himself and his family in for by taking on this project. Set in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, the peel tower dates back to the 15th century and was protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It took months of red tape wrangling before Francis finally got permission to start working on the building, but with the rubble barely cleared, one of the enormous 700-year-old walls collapsed showing just how much of a labour of love this project was going to be. Two and a half years after Francis and his wife Karen moved in, Kevin McCloud returns to find out that the spiralling costs of restoring the castle has meant the fairytale life is nothing like Francis’s dream.
10 : Cambridgeshire Fens
Kevin returns to visit Kelly and Masoko Neville who set about building not just a spectacular oak frame and straw bale house, but a whole new way of life in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Kelly is a carpenter by trade and has always dreamed of building an eco friendly home with his own hands. This highly sustainable house, sitting in harmony with nature and its surroundings, will become the base for Kelly and Masoko’s new self-sufficient life where they will produce their own food and energy from the land.
11 : Italy
Eight years ago Alex and Cheryl Reay left London for a new life in the New Forest. They bought a run down medieval thatched cottage and lovingly brought it back to life. Then just before Christmas, with Cheryl pregnant, disaster struck.
12 : The Glass & Timber House, London
In this episode Kevin meets master carpenter Bill Bradley and his wife Sarah, whose plan is to build two identical timber houses in south London, selling one to finance the building of the other.

Season 6 (2006)

12  |  : 04/05/2006 British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. 6
6 (12 )
1 : The Loch House, Killearn
Jim Fairfull considers himself a very lucky guy. He was out fishing with a friend when he came across a beautiful, secluded loch. It’s a magical place with stunning views over the nearby hills. He got chatting to the farmer who owned it and discovered the site was for sale. Within a week, he’d done a deal and bought the land. The loch also gave them a fantastic opportunity to build a very unique house. They can control the water level of the loch which means they could actually build over the loch without worrying about flooding. So with the help of their architect, they designed an extravagant split level five bedroom house that actually hovers over the loch.
2 : The Contemporary Barn Conversion, Ross-on-Wye
Hillcott Barn looked more like a Tuscan monastery than an English barn. When the farmer put it up for sale, most people who viewed it walked away. It was dark and isolated and could only be reached by a half mile farm track with a steep 1:8 gradient. But furniture designer Robert Ellis (58) had had his eye on it for some time. For years he’d been jogging past the barn and always thought one day he’d like to live there. Against all advice, Rob and his wife Jane, (58) a textile designer, went ahead and bought the barn for £210,000 and proposed to convert at £250,000.
3 : Stirling: The Contemporary Cedar Clad Home
Theo and Elaine Leijser hoped to bring a bit of Dutch style to Scotland in the building of their first family home – a colourful, contemporary three storey house, with a striking cedar clad exterior. The couple stumbled across the perfect plot overlooking the beautiful Campsie Fells near Glasgow, bought it and began to plan their dream build.
4 : Water Tower Conversion, Ashford
For six years Bruno and Denise Del Tufo stared at the large concrete water tower at the bottom of their garden trying to figure out what to do with it. It’s a very rare object – a square water tower on stilts designed by architect Edwin Lutyens, who built it to supply the manor house nearby. The planners were open to persuasion so they approached an architect who came up with a bold, uncompromising extension in metal, glass and concrete. Denise and Bruno were keen to keep the original structure visible so the new house is threaded between the legs of the water tower.
5 : Revisited: 19th Century Manor House, Creuse
Christine Benjamin and her husband Peter currently live in an Edwardian manor house called Medland Manor. Both in their 60s, the manor is getting to be too large for them, so they’ve decided to build themselves something smaller. Despite the manor’s traditional style, Peter and Christine felt strongly that their new building should embrace modern design whilst remaining sensitive to its site. So they came up with a house that is part traditional timber frame cottage, part modern glass pavilion.
6 : Revisited - Killearn: Loch House
Jim Fairfull considers himself a very lucky guy. He was out fishing with a friend when he came across a beautiful, secluded loch. It's a magical place with stunning views over the nearby hills. He got chatting to the farmer who owned it and discovered the
6 : Revisited: 300 Year Old Chalet
Kevin McCloud revisits Nicky and James Dobree. Nicky was raised in France, James in Beirut – both have fond memories of the mountains as children. It was natural for them to one day look to buy a place amongst France's tallest peaks, the Alps. The journey moving the family, including their two young sons, Fabian and Felix, from South London to a renovated 300-year-old farmhouse in Les Gets was to have its ups and downs. It was never meant to be a permanent move. The original plan was to develop the top two floors of the chalet so the family could spend the summer there, overseeing the completion of the bottom floors. They would then be able to rent out the whole chalet in the winter months. The family were only planning to use their new home for the summer seasons.
7 : Garden House aka Mies van der Rohe Inspired House
Christine Benjamin and her husband Peter currently live in an Edwardian manor house called Medland Manor. Approaching their 60s, the manor is getting to be too large for them, so they’ve decided to build themselves something smaller. Despite the manor’s traditional style, Peter and Christine felt strongly that their new building should embrace modern design whilst remaining sensitive to its site. They came up with a house that is part traditional timber frame cottage, part modern glass pavilion.
7 : Garden House aka Mies van der Rohe Inspired House
Christine Benjamin and her husband Peter currently live in an Edwardian manor house called Medland Manor. Approaching their 60s, the manor is getting to be too large for them, so they’ve decided to build themselves something smaller. Despite the manor’s traditional style, Peter and Christine felt strongly that their new building should embrace modern design whilst remaining sensitive to its site. They came up with a house that is part traditional timber frame cottage, part modern glass pavilion.
7 : Garden House, Mies van der Rohe, Exeter
Kevin revisits Denise and Bruno Del Tufo who six years ago set about transforming a concrete water tower in their back garden into an avant-garde contemporary home.
8 : Revisited: The Curved House
Anjana and David Devoy started building a contemporary home that curved around a protected chestnut tree in their garden. Kevin McCloud returns to see if their plan worked.
8 : Revisited: The Curved House
Anjana and David Devoy started building a contemporary home that curved around a protected chestnut tree in their garden. Kevin McCloud returns to see if their plan worked.

Season 5 (2005)

15  |  : 13/04/2005 British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. 5
5 (15 )
1 : Peckham: The Sliding Glass Roof House
When Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe began looking for a house to buy in London they soon realised that the only affordable option was to build one themselves. They snapped up a dirt cheap slither of land in Peckham at an auction only to be told it was too small to put a house on. Undeterred, three years ago, engineering whiz Monty began building an extraordinary experimental bungalow that filled the site to bursting point.
1 : Revisited - Edinburgh: 19th Century Sandstone House
Kevin returns to see whether the couple's solo attempts to transform a wreck of an old stone building in Leith, with no previous building experience, has been successful.
2 : The Sliding Glass Roof House, Peckham
For the last 20 years, Pat Becker has been living in a large Georgian family house overlooking the sea in Devon. Now that her family have flown the nest and the house has grown too big for her, she's decided to build a new home at the bottom of the garden. Shaped like a curvy seashell, the new house has concrete and polystyrene walls, which spiral down from the central staircase. Her architect has promised it will take only six months to build but constructing a round house is never straightforward!
3 : Kent: Finnish Log Cabin
John Cadney and Marnie Moon have never had a permanent home. For 16 years they've camped on land owned by Marnie's parents because they could never afford to buy a house in the area where they live. So John, a carpenter, rolled his sleeves up and decided to build a house for his family with his bare hands. After much searching for the right kind of house they settled on an environmentally friendly four-bedroom log cabin. The whole thing was imported from Finland as hundreds of pre-cut bits of wood. All John had to do is figure out how it all fits together!
4 : A Family Home built out of Finnish Logs, Kent
When Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe began looking for a house to buy in London they soon realised that the only affordable option was to build one themselves. They snapped up a dirt cheap slither of land in Peckham at an auction only to be told it was too small to put a house on. Undeterred, three years ago, engineering whiz Monty began building an extraordinary experimental bungalow that filled the site to bursting point.
5 : Belfast: A 21st Century Answer to the Roman Villa
This is Belfast, one of the great cities of the industrial revolution, and home to Thomas and Dervla O?Hare. They?ve lived here for 18 years, and although they still love their tiny cottage for its compactness, they?re about to build something much, much bigger. They?re building a 21st century answer to the Roman villa, with a copper roof, glass and concrete walls and vast amounts of living space all arranged around a central courtyard.
5 : Revisited - Hackney: The Terrace Conversion
6 : Revisited - Waterloo: The Violin Factory
Louise and Milko wanted to build the home of a lifetime. Milko's job as a well-paid City banker meant they could think big, so Louise set up her own architectural practice and they bought a disused violin factory in the heart of London's Waterloo. The crumbling building was hemmed in on all sides and had no views, but Louise had a vision of a spectacular loft-style home that would combine stunning design with utter luxury
6 : Devon: Miami Style Beach House
Kevin McCloud meets Julie and Mark Veysey, whose Grand Design is a stunning Miami-style beach house on a beachfront plot overlooking the south Devon coast. Julie and Mark have had several holidays in Miami, and Julie wanted to recreate the outdoor beachfront lifestyle back in England, living in a house full of light and sun, within easy reach of the waves.
7 : Carmarthen: The Eco-House
Andrew and Lowri Davies embark on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them? As the budget spirals out of control, they find it increasingly difficult to balance the budget with their desire for a sustainable home.
8 : Revisited - Carmarthen: The Eco-House
Kevin revisits Andrew and Lowri Davies who embarked on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them? As the budget spirals out of control, they find it increasingly difficult to balance the budget with their desire for a sustainable home.
8 : Revisited - Sussex: The Woodsmans Cottage
Kevin returns to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed. The house has bedded down into its landscaped kitchen garden and his life has changed in unexpected ways.
8 : Revisited - Sussex: The Woodsmans Cottage
Kevin returns to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed. The house has bedded down into its landscaped kitchen garden and his life has changed in unexpected ways.
9 : Revisited - Peckham: The Sliding Glass Roof House
Engineering whiz Monty Ravenscroft built an extraordinary experimental home in Peckham. Kevin returns to see how it suits Monty and his partner now they have a child.
10 : Revisited - Belfast: A 21st Century Answer to the Roman Villa
Kevin catches up with Thomas and Dervla O'Hare who built a spectacular home on a hillside in Belfast.

Season 4 (2004)

14  |  : 21/01/2004 British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. 4
4 (14 )
1 : The Violin Factory, Waterloo
Louise and Milko wanted to build the home of a lifetime. Milko's job as a well-paid City banker meant they could think big, so Louise set up her own architectural practice and they bought a disused violin factory in the heart of London's Waterloo. The crumbling building was hemmed in on all sides and had no views, but Louise had a vision of a spectacular loft-style home that would combine stunning design with utter luxury
2 : Walton: The German Huf Haus
David and Greta loved their home, a modernist structure in Surrey that they had built themselves almost 40 years ago. It was filled with things they'd chosen over the years – design classics, mementoes, David's paintings. But that house was falling apart and had to come down. Meanwhile, they had lost their hearts to a German post-and-beam house, designed by architect Peter Huf and available as a customised kit.
3 : Return to Cloud, Buckinghamshire
Kevin returns to see whether the couple's solo attempts to transform a wreck of an old stone building in Leith, with no previous building experience, has been successful.
3 : Revisited - Buckinghamshire: The Inverted-Roof House
In November 2001, Tom and Judy demolished a bungalow and started building an infinitely more ambitious house. Designed on different levels, with glass walls and exposed steelwork, it was to be a miraculous piece of engineering, giving the couple and their two young children a beautiful, technologically advanced home. Tom appointed himself project manager—a job that proved to be more challenging than he had expected. Grand Designs 3 followed the first 16 months of the build. As Grand Designs 4 goes on air, how close is it to completion?
4 : Clapham: The Curved House
David and Anjana's tiny coach house was proving too small for them and their two children. So they decided to build a new house in their own garden, which was big by London standards. But this particular grassy plot came with problems. It was overlooked by huge blocks of flats, and in the middle of it stood a chestnut tree they weren't allowed to cut down. They came up with an inspired solution: they would build a curving house along the borders of their plot. What's more, they would do a lot of the work themselves.
5 : The Curved House
David and Anjana's tiny coach house was proving too small for them and their two children. So they decided to build a new house in their own garden, which was big by London standards. But this particular grassy plot came with problems. It was overlooked by huge blocks of flats, and in the middle of it stood a chestnut tree they weren't allowed to cut down. They came up with an inspired solution: they would build a curving house along the borders of their plot. What's more, they would do a lot of the work themselves.
6 : Modernist Sugar Cube, Sussex
When Reuben and April came across a ruined 19th-century house amid the tower blocks of Leith, Edinburgh, they saw it as their future home. They had no clear idea of how to restore it, and precious little building experience. Still, they were young and fit (they had met on Reuben's climbing wall) and they liked a challenge. So they bought the crumbling shell and set about transforming it with their own hands.
6 : Sussex: The Modernist Sugar Cube
Tom and Darron wanted to build a house that would be home to them, their art collection and their two large dogs. Darron's passion for surfing meant it would also have to be near a beach. They already shared a timber beach house in a hamlet on the Sussex coast, and when a neighbour's bungalow came up for sale, they decided to buy it, demolish it and build a dazzling white modernist house in its place.
7 : The Oak-Framed House, Argyll
David and Greta loved their home, a modernist structure in Surrey that they had built themselves almost 40 years ago. It was filled with things they'd chosen over the years – design classics, mementoes, David's paintings. But that house was falling apart and had to come down. Meanwhile, they had lost their hearts to a German post-and-beam house, designed by architect Peter Huf and available as a customised kit.
8 : Revisited - Edinburgh: 19th Century Sandstone House
Kevin returns to see whether the couple's solo attempts to transform a wreck of an old stone building in Leith, with no previous building experience, has been successful.
9 : Revisited - Waterloo: The Violin Factory
Louise and Milko wanted to build the home of a lifetime. Milko's job as a well-paid City banker meant they could think big, so Louise set up her own architectural practice and they bought a disused violin factory in the heart of London's Waterloo. The crumbling building was hemmed in on all sides and had no views, but Louise had a vision of a spectacular loft-style home that would combine stunning design with utter luxury
10 : Revisited - Clapham: The Curved House
Anjana and David Devoy started building a contemporary home that curved around a protected chestnut tree in their garden. Kevin McCloud returns to see if their plan worked.
11 : Revisited - Walton: The German Huf Haus
Kevin revisits David and Greta Iredale, who replaced their original house which they designed and built themselves with a German built, precision engineered Huf Haus.
12 : Revisited - Argyll: The Oak-Framed House
Kevin revisits Tony and Jo, musicians with Scottish Opera, who had long dreamed of a home in the countryside. They found a perfect site on the Clyde estuary in Argyll and Bute. Located in a small village on a hillside, it had glorious views as far as the isle of Arran and was less than an hour's drive from Glasgow. Inspired by local oak-framed barns, they gave architect Andy McAvoy an open brief. In return, he gave them a design that fused medieval and modern and promised a beautifully simple interior. However, the construction was anything but simple...

Season 3 (2003)

15  |  : 02/12/2003 British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. 3
3 (15 )
1 : Peterborough: The Wooden Box
'Is it a bold contemporary design or a garden shed?' John and Terri found themselves asking, halfway into their build. They had knocked down a derelict house in a beautiful rural setting and commissioned commercial architects to build them a new one. But was it too small for them, their young son and the baby on the way?
2 : The Water-Works, Derbyshire
The 1930s derelict water-works Chris and Leanne fell in love with was huge and its design had clearly been inspired by Gilbert Scott's Bankside power station, now better known as the Tate Modern. But nothing would deter the couple. 'We looked at it,' said Chris, 'and saw our home.'
3 : The Woodsman's House, Sussex
The old quarry stood on a slope of the Eden valley and commanded beautiful views. Local architect John Bodger designed a two-storey house that burrowed backwards into the rock and made maximum use of natural resources for light, warmth and power
4 : The Victorian Threshing Barn, Surrey
After 10 years of living in a small house in east London, John and Eleni hankered after modern, open-plan living. They didn't want to move, so they decided to give their Victorian terrace home a radical redesign. The house was in a conservation area, so the outside had to remain unchanged. Inside, however, they decided to rip out everything including walls, ceilings, floors and start again.
5 : Inverted V Roof, Buckinghamshire
Merry's family have been Herefordshire builders for generations, so she knew that the county was rich in traditional building crafts. She and Ben decided to combine these with technology for a new house with a genuinely rural feel. Her father drew up a design that followed the traditional cottage layout while incorporating modern comforts.
6 : The Terrace Conversion, Hackney
For Philip and Angela, the build was part of a life change that had begun two years earlier. Just after their second daughter was born, Philip fell seriously ill, prompting the family to leave London and move back to his parents' village. Acquiring the site was easy, as Philip's parents owned it. Getting planning permission took longer, and a crucial factor in their success was that they would be restoring the outside of the barn and keeping the innovation hidden
7 : The Underground House, Cumbria
'Is it a bold contemporary design or a garden shed?' John and Terri found themselves asking, halfway into their build. They had knocked down a derelict house in a beautiful rural setting and commissioned commercial architects to build them a new one. But was it too small for them, their young son and the baby on the way?
8 : The Traditional Cottage, Herefordshire
For 10 years, Ben lived in tents and caravans in a wood in West Sussex. As a woodsman, he needed and wanted to live among the trees. But after a battle with planning he finally got permission to build himself a house with more creature comforts. He invited volunteers to help him build one by hand, from the materials growing around him.
9 : Revisited - Buckinghamshire: The Inverted-Roof House
Tom and Judy wanted more than just a home for themselves and their two children. On a site of outstanding natural beauty in Buckinghamshire, they set out to build an ambitious house - a symphony of angles, glass walls and exposed steel, with a dramatic inverted roof. Tom made himself site manager and main contractor. He had no experience but he liked a challenge - and, after all, how difficult could it be?
10 : Revisited - Hackney: The Terrace Conversion
Kevin McCloud takes a trip back to the home of John and Eleni Flood who completely gutted their Victorian terraced house to create an open, light and modern space.
11 : Revisited - Sussex: The Woodsmans Cottage
Kevin returns to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed. The house has bedded down into its landscaped kitchen garden and his life has changed in unexpected ways.
12 : Revisited - Peterborough: The Wooden Box
Kevin McCloud drops in at John and Terri Westlake's self-built, contemporary wooden home, which has a wall made entirely of glass and great views across open countryside near Peterborough.
13 : Revisited - Surrey: The Victorian Threshing Barn
Kevin McCloud revisits Philip Trail and his wife Angela who moved to stress-free Surrey and renovated a 150-year-old threshing barn after Philip was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
14 : Revisited - Cumbria: The Underground House
Five years on, Kevin McCloud goes back to the wilds of Cumbria to see how the Reddy family have adapted to their ecologically sound earth-sheltered home.
15 : Revisited (2) - Sussex: The Woodsmans Cottage
Kevin returns again to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed.

Season 2 (2001)

17  |  : 17/07/2001 British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. 2
2 (17 )
1 : The Regency Villa, Surrey
When Rupert and Julie bought a hilltop site in the Berkshire Downs, they were determined to build a house that would make the most of the countryside and stunning views. They turned to architecture firm Roderick James, which specialises in modern design and traditional timber craftsmanship. Together with architect Hugh McGann, they came up with a house of green oak and glass, built in an unusual cruciform (cross) shape.
2 : Sussex: The New England House
With a plot of land in Sussex overlooking the South Downs, newly-weds Jane and Willem wanted a house that would be atmospheric and open to the countryside. Inspired by memories of America, Jane planned a New England-style gabled house with large windows to make the most of the views.
3 : The Wool Mill, Yorkshire
A derelict woollen mill in a Yorkshire village may not say 'modernist' to everyone. But Chris and Gill - who, fortunately, run their own specialist joinery business - saw it as the perfect opportunity to create a visionary home. They liked the traditional brick of the building and opted to keep the exterior virtually untouched. Inside, they would strip everything out and make a home of fluid spaces, based around an open-plan ground floor, an atrium and a galleried upper floor.
4 : Wales: The Isolated Cottage
An isolated hilltop in the Brecon Beacons might seem an inhospitable place for a couple's first home. But Adrian and Corinna both grew up in the area, and the ruined farmhouse they chose to restore had been in Adrian's family for generations. The site's lack of mains water and electricity gave them no qualms. True, the track up the hill was often inaccessible in winter. But the landscape was beautiful and they both felt they belonged there
5 : The Cruciform House, Berkshire
Helen and Mark had always dreamed of owning a Georgian house but knew they couldn't afford the genuine article. So they decided to build their own. They bought a large plot of land in Surrey, surrounded by trees, and commissioned an architect who specialised in conservation architecture to design it.
6 : The Self-Build, Birmingham
With a plot of land in Sussex overlooking the South Downs, newly-weds Jane and Willem wanted a house that would be atmospheric and open to the countryside. Inspired by memories of America, Jane planned a New England-style gabled house with large windows to make the most of the views.
7 : The Jewel Box, London
An isolated hilltop in the Brecon Beacons might seem an inhospitable place for a couple's first home. But Adrian and Corinna both grew up in the area, and the ruined farmhouse they chose to restore had been in Adrian's family for generations. The site's lack of mains water and electricity gave them no qualms. True, the track up the hill was often inaccessible in winter. But the landscape was beautiful and they both felt they belonged there
8 : The Derelict Barns, Devon
A derelict woollen mill in a Yorkshire village may not say 'modernist' to everyone. But Chris and Gill - who, fortunately, run their own specialist joinery business - saw it as the perfect opportunity to create a visionary home. They liked the traditional brick of the building and opted to keep the exterior virtually untouched. Inside, they would strip everything out and make a home of fluid spaces, based around an open-plan ground floor, an atrium and a galleried upper floor.
9 : Revisited - Birmingham: The Community Self-Build
Kevin McCloud revisits an innovative housing scheme in Birmingham. Just over two years ago a group of 11 men and women agreed to build, not just their own, but each other's homes.
9 : Doncaster: Revisited
Kevin travels back to Doncaster to catch up with self-builders Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood and their futuristic glass and steel house in a suburb of Doncaster.
10 : Birmingham: Revisited
Kevin McCloud revisits an innovative housing scheme in Birmingham. Just over two years ago a group of 11 men and women agreed to build, not just their own, but each other's homes.
10 : Revisited - Wales: The Isolated Cottage
Kevin McCloud re-visits Adrian and Corrina, who decided their first home was to be a 300-year-old ruin. The former cottage is set in the inhospitable climate of the Brecon Beacons National Park.
11 : Revisited - Devon: The Derelict Barns
Sue and Martin took a holistic approach when they converted a pair of Devon barns into a family home. They believed that the house should look like a natural part of the landscape. So they built it using environmentally sustainable techniques and allowed much of its design to evolve during the build. The oldest barn, dating from the 1600s, was built from stone and cob - a straw-and-mud mixture characteristic of Devon - while the newer, 19th-century barn was totally of stone. The older barn would have a thatched roof, the newer barn slates. A south-facing sitting room would overlook a double-height glass atrium, which would become an indoor garden, filled with citrus trees. Four bedrooms and a study would go upstairs.
11 : Wales: Revisited
Kevin McCloud revisits Adrian and Corrina, who decided their first home was to be a 300-year-old ruin. The former cottage is set in the inhospitable climate of the Brecon Beacons National Park.
12 : Revisited - Lambourn: The Cruciform House
Kevin McCloud returns to the Lambourn Valley to meet a couple who took three years to finish building their home on the Berkshire Downs.
13 : Amersham: Revisited
Kevin is in Amersham to update on a project taken on by Deborah and architect Andrew. Their venture involved designing an 'invisible' house that blended in with the surrounding reservoirs.
14 : Devon: Revisited
Kevin travels to the beautiful setting of south Devon to revisit Sue and Martin, whose dream was to create a family home using old English building techniques

Season 1 (1999)

17  |  : 29/04/1999 British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. 1
1 (17 )
1 : The Timber Frame Kit House, Newhaven
A couple in Newhaven face a race against time as they build their dream home on windswept cliff-top site in time for the birth of their baby.
2 : The English Barn, Berkshire
Kevin travels to Oxfordshire to meet the Randolphs, who built their first house 10 years ago and now, in their 70s, have decided to do it all again!
3 : The Co-op, Walter Segal Houses, Brighton
This project was a co-operative venture - 10 young families each put in 30 hours of construction work per week. Kevin travels to Brighton to meet a co-operative of ten young families, including ex-travellers and single parents, who are building both their own and each others homes. A housing association bought the land from the council for £58,000. Paul then worked with the association to put the co-operative together. All the members were people on the council's housing list.
4 : The Water Tower, Coleshill, Amersham
Kevin McCloud travels to Amersham, where a couple plan to design an 'invisible' house, blending in with the earth banks of the surrounding reservoirs.
5 : The Eco-House, Suffolk
A Suffolk couple plan an environmentally friendly house with solar heating, grey water systems and reclaimed materials.
6 : The Chapel, Cornwall
Kevin McCloud travels to Cornwall to visit Gavin Allen and Jane Fitzsimons, who are trying to convert a chapel into a home and a teleworking office for Jane.
7 : The House of Straw, Islington
Kevin McCloud is in lslington where Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth have come up with a highly experimental design for a home/office.
8 : The Glass-House, Doncaster
Kevin McCloud travels to Doncaster where Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood are building a futuristic glass and steel house in a suburb of Doncaster.
9 : Revisited - Doncaster: The Glass House
Kevin McCloud travels back to Doncaster to catch up with self-builders Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood and their futuristic glass and steel house in a suburb of Doncaster.
10 : Revisited - Suffolk: The Eco-House
Kevin McCloud travels to Suffolk to revisit a couple who dreamed of building a 100% environmentally friendly house. How far have they managed to stick to their green ideals?
11 : Revisited - Islington: The House of Straw
Kevin McCloud revisits Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth in Islington, London. Will they have realised their dream of using straw bales in the construction of their house?
12 : Revisited - Brighton: The Co-Operative Build
Kevin McCloud revisits a group of people in a Brighton co-operative who are building their own homes and the homes of their neighbours.
13 : Revisited - Amersham: The Water Tower
Kevin is in Amersham to update on a project taken on by Deborah and architect Andrew. Their venture involved designing an 'invisible' house that blended in with the surrounding reservoirs.
14 : Revisited (2) - Islington: The House of Straw
Kevin McCloud revisits the improbable build of two architects who built their central London house out of straw bales, springs, nappy cladding and silver tin.
15 : Revisited - Berkshire: English Barn
Kevin McCloud revisits retired couple Denys and Marjorie Randolph, who decided to embark on their final building project, a brand new green oak barn-style house.
16 : Revisited (2) - Amersham: The Water Tower
Kevin is in Amersham for a second update on a project taken on by Deborah and architect Andrew. Their venture involved designing an 'invisible' house that blended in with the surrounding reservoirs.
17 : Revisited (2) - Brighton: The Co-Operative Build
Kevin saw a ground-breaking co-operative of ten families built their own homes on the edge of Brighton. They where known as 'The Hedgehogs' and were made up of former travellers and those living in insecure accommodation. Kevin catches up with the community over ten years on.

 Casting

 

 

 

 

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